Static and perfused phantom media for thermal property measurement techniques

The development of techniques for the measurement of thermal transport properties (thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and, in the case of perfused biological tissue, the local blood flow) requires phantom media which are stable, well-characterized, and simulate the behavior of the systems to be measured over the expected range of property values. The authors describe two phantom media which have been developed and are used for calibration and evaluation of thermal property measurement techniques. The first is a static gel phantom of high thermal conductivity. The second is a low-flow filter bed used to simulate the convective transport processes occurring in the tissue microvasculature.<>